376 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CIIAP. xxm 



it particularly handsome. It exists in considerable numbers in 

 Scotland, being generally found in thick woods where the ground 

 is covered with very high heather. This animal is not gregarious, 

 but is generally associated with one female, or is quite alone. 

 The female carries her young for between five and six months, and 

 has seldom more than one or two at a birth. The flesh is esteemed 

 in Central Europe, where it is well larded with bacon, and prepared 

 in a different manner from that in England ; but I have always 

 regarded it as dry, and most inferior game. It can hardly be 

 classed as a sporting animal, as the shooting of a roe-deer is upon 

 a par with shooting a hare. It is common throughout Europe and 

 Western Asia. 



There are great varieties of small deer throughout the world, 

 some of which are too insignificant for description, as I endeavour 

 in this work to exhibit the characters and peculiarities of such 

 animals as are generally accepted by the sportsman as attractive 

 game. It is therefore a relief to take leave of the insignificant 

 roe, and to cross the Atlantic, where we shall find the red-deer of 

 Europe transformed by the favourable conditions of the country 

 and its fattening pasturage into the gigantic wapiti (Cervus 

 Canadensis). 



